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About Cliff Kayser

Cliff is an experienced organization development (OD) consultant, executive coach, and leadership trainer overseeing Polarity Partnerships' east coast operations out of Washington, DC. In 2017, Cliff became a founding partner of the 501(c)3 organization the Institute for Polarities of Democracy and in 2018 the healthcare coaching/consulting firm, SixSEED Partners. Cliff is a faculty member at American University's Master's in OD and KEY Executive programs and is a Coaching Fellow for George Mason's Accredited Coach Training Program under the Center for the Advancement of Well-being. His past work experience includes VP of Organizational Development and Training for The National Cooperative Bank, Senior OD Consultant for The Washington Post, and Corporate Manager of Human Resources (HR) and Training for The Washington Post Company. Cliff earned Master's Degrees in OD (2007) and HR Management (1998) from The American University and his Coaching Certification from Georgetown's Executive Leadership Coaching Program in (2008). He is a PCC (Professional Certified Coach) and a graduate of the 2-year Polarity Mastery program (2010), and has served as the program dean since 2014.

Political Savvy and Persuasive Messaging: Aristotle’s 3-Pole Multarity of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

By |2023-08-04T14:55:45-05:00August 4th, 2023|Multarities, Polarity Thinking|

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos and work in Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle -- an interdependency of three – in a powerful way to support political savvy and gain support for your ideas/initiatives. Each of the three dimensions represent important aspects of the Self And Other relationship in leveraging the “GP” (Greater Purpose) for the 3-poles: Political Savvy/Persuasive Messaging. Here [...]

Identifying Purpose to Address Depression

By |2023-06-19T11:26:35-05:00June 19th, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging, Polarity Thinking|

Kierkegaard succeed in “turning a somersault” over his “melancholy” (what they called “depression” in his day). The “cure” was purpose, in his case -- writing -- that made the day-to-day grind of life more tolerable and livable for others. Paradoxically, that made his own life more tolerable and livable. The bottom line: Help for others [...]

The Polarity of “Spirit And Self” – Through the Eyes of Kierkegaard

By |2023-06-19T11:23:09-05:00June 18th, 2023|Polarity Thinking, Self and Other|

Through Kierkegaard’s eyes, the “Spirt” and “Self” are one in the same. Therefore, despairing is a sickness in that “It” because it reveals the gap between the Self that is and the Self that reduces that Self’s full potentiation. “The self is a relation which relates to itself… A human being is a synthesis of [...]

What’s Whitelash?

By |2023-06-19T11:20:17-05:00June 17th, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging, Institute for Polarities of Democracy, Polarity Thinking|

From: American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress,” by Wesley Lowery Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist implicitly discusses polarities (“conundrums” or “tensions”) underlying our common conceptions of racism by probing recent surges in white-supremacist violence. The central premise of “Whitelash” is “a pull back on the rope”: “Each step toward a more [...]

Confidence to Risk And Humility to Take Ownership — Seventy-nine Years Ago

By |2023-06-07T18:21:05-05:00June 7th, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging|

On June 5, 1944, more than 5,000 ships waited to transport more than 150,000 soldiers to France before daybreak the following morning. General Dwight D. Eisenhower hoped these troops would push the German troops back across Europe. Eisenhower knew the fight to take Normandy would be brutal. The beaches these troops would assault were tangled [...]

The Institute for the Polarities of Democracy

By |2023-05-30T17:13:47-05:00May 30th, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging, Institute for Polarities of Democracy, Polarity Thinking|

Created as a nonprofit social change think tank in 2017, the Institute for the Polarities of Democracy joins the tools and processes of decades of polarity approach development with the basic principles of democracy drawn from centuries of literature about freedom and governance under one unifying Polarities of Democracy theory, which the Institute uses to [...]

U.S. Army “Talks” Democracy, Fascism, and Communism (Inspired by Letters from an American, May 29, 2023, Heather Cox Richardson)

By |2023-05-30T17:13:57-05:00May 29th, 2023|Institute for Polarities of Democracy|

Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II Army Talks. The series was designed “to help [the personnel] become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers” -- the topic for the week March 24, 1945 was “FASCISM!” The War [...]

High-leverage Action Steps in the relationship between Self And Other: The “Rogerian Multarity”: Unconditional Positive Regard, Empathy, and Congruence

By |2023-05-25T15:21:02-05:00May 25th, 2023|Multarities, Polarity Thinking|

NOTE: From Carl Rogers: On Becoming a Person (1961), Chapter 14. The “Rogerian triad” was created for the therapeutic relationship. However, it can be useful for Coaches, the Self And Other relationship, and one’s relationship w/“Self.” A “Multarity” is an interdependency of more than two. (See Figure, below): Figure There are three points in the “relationship triangle” [...]

The Mind Or Body Origin of Emotions Debate, “Solved!”

By |2023-05-25T15:11:24-05:00May 3rd, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging, Polarity Thinking|

Walter Cannon suggested emotions originate in the brain and work their way into the body. William James theorized emotions originate in the body, get perceived in the brain, and we form stories to explain them. Welcome to the Cannon-James debate, ya’ll! Summaries of the two points of view appear at the end of this note, [...]

Why Leaders Need To Learn To Be Able To Handle Ambiguity

By |2023-01-10T17:40:08-05:00January 10th, 2023|Both/And Polarity Leveraging, Polarity Thinking, Polarity Thinking and Problem-solving Thinking|

(Cliff Kayser of Polarity Partnerships, LLC is provides this summary w/additions from an August article in FORBES by Roger Trap.) So complex is the modern business environment that leaders are confronting paradoxes on a regular basis. They want to protect their core business at the same time as innovating for the future; they are looking [...]

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